You're looking at Less Wrong's discussion board. This includes all posts, including those that haven't been promoted to the front page yet. For more information, see About Less Wrong.

Furcas comments on Pigliucci's comment on Yudkowsky's and Dai's stance on morality and logic - Less Wrong Discussion

1 Post author: mapnoterritory 05 January 2013 08:05AM

You are viewing a comment permalink. View the original post to see all comments and the full post content.

Comments (18)

You are viewing a single comment's thread.

Comment author: Furcas 05 January 2013 05:58:14PM *  1 point [-]

morality isn’t a matter of logic “all the way down,” because it has to start with some axioms,

Eliezer knows that.

From a comment on Massimo's blog...

daedalus writes:

Yudkowsky uses "logic all the way down" to mean, not bricks to construct a moral home, but formal rules to specify a moral essence. Much like how the formal rules of second order logic pin down a unique essence of the phrase "natural numbers"

Massimo writes:

Yes, and that captures the difference. Unlike numbers, morality doesn’t have “essence,” it’s a contingent concept that applies to contingent beings. That’s why morality can’t be a question of logic all the way down, unlike math.

I don't think Eliezer would agree with this, however, so it looks like there is a real difference of opinion between them. See Qiaochu_Yuan's comment for the perfect reply.